– Gov’t injects $40M to pave South Dakota track
HAVING overcome the major hurdle of external debt, Guyana is now investing heavily in sectors which had been given little attention in the past.
President Bharrat Jagdeo made this comment before witnessing the signing of a pact between the Guyana Motor Racing and Sports Club (GMRSC) and Dipcon Engineering for the resurfacing of the racing track at the South Dakota circuit.
The Guyana Government has injected $40M into the long awaited project which will cost $57M. The signing follows a pledge made by the President six months ago to officials of the GMRSC to pave the track.
The disclosure was met with loud applause from the gathering.
“As our country grows, as our economy does better, and it is doing better, in spite of the global recession, we’ve had aggressive growth in this country, expansion of infrastructure, all of the indicators pointing in the right direction. So we can start allocating more and more money that we collect in revenue to sports and to culture, because these are essential parts of Guyanese life,” President Jagdeo said.
The signing was done during an award ceremony at the newly refurbished GMRSC ground on Thomas Lands. The ceremony honoured participants of the Seaboard Marine GMRSC Championships at the South Dakota Circuit, Timehri.
Among the highlights of the ceremony was the handing over of the President’s trophy to Kevin Jeffrey, the Champion of the Day.
The competition attracted more than 120 participants from Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, Canada and the United States.
President Jagdeo said that over the last several years, there have been increased allocations to sports and the arts in Guyana. He made reference to the commencement of works on a world class athletic track at Leonora on the West Coast of Demerara, the soon-to-be-completed Olympic sized swimming pool, and construction of public squash courts in the city.
In the arts, the Head of State made reference to a programme which commenced as recent as Monday whereby several film makers will be receiving a grant from the Government to commence short movies.
Categories in the Guyana Prize for Literature have been broadened and new copies of the Guyana Classics have been published.
None of this would have been possible were it not for fervent efforts by the Government to address the issue of external debt after taking office in 1992. President Jagdeo said what started as 94% of the country’s revenue to service external debt has now been brought down to 4%.